Becoming Ta'a Chume
by Lady Neeva
Summary: In Tenel Ka's Hapes, A fallen Ta'a Chume recollects her childhood on neutral Gallinore, reign on isolationist Hapes, and her eventual fall on present-day Hapes.
1. Prologue: A Thousand Eyes

**Prologue**

A Thousand Eyes

_What does time recognize? A coat of a thousand colors~a coat of eyes._

_Nine years since her arrest. Ta'a Chume Ad'Ahy is on the death seat. The only reason the Erenada is postponing her execution is her hope of her repentance._

_~*( )*~*( )*~*( )*~_

_Well, I won't surrender. My mother used to tell me that I was a block of earth~born to be stepped on. I think of myself as a diamond among jewels. Compared to Teneniel Djo's nineteen years, I have stood on the throne of Hapes for twenty-nine years. Yet I am not being judged fairly. Even if I do abide by the rules, I am considered a demon, while Teneniel Djo is hailed as the true jewel. I have ruled these same people for twenty-nine years. The number is twenty-nine._

_I watch Isolder. All my anger have gathered itself to simmer, forever watching, barred by fate. I had expectations of Isolder, too many perhaps. _No, Mother. The tone is firm and obstinate on that infamous day when he refused Chume ta' Organa's proposal to wed the barbarian._ That's what killed his spirit. He drops what I like and picks up what I do not. It's been that way since he saw how they treated me. How can one live by the sea and never see it's waves? Isolder just doesn't see the whole picture. He doesn't know that I was once Hapes' sunshine. Neither can he imagine his mother as an innocent. I don't blame him for that. There was no trace of the child I once had been after filling Ni'Korish's seat to become the Ta'a Chume. No trace that I once stood on the light side._

_The hands come to strangle me. I can feel them pulling me down. Yet I am not afraid of them. I do not fear death if my words live in the pages of fine-lined flimsiplast, for the lips of generations to come. After all, how much they tell of me is true? _

_It is dark outside. A luminous night without stars. The guards have put me on the watch, but they cannot break my spirit. I look out towards the Soraya, the ever flowing river of time. It's glassy surface reflected the times before: Light, dark, and neutral. In it's depth, a burning bow. The heat feels like warm water pouring over my face; the surface is an giant bowl and I am walking in it's bottom~unable to climb and unable to get out. Am I sad? No, not really, for I have lived an extraordinary life..._


	2. Chapter 1: Spring's Comet

**Chapter One:**

Spring's Comet

Spring had the quality of a fresh plucked rose, merged the succulent aborscence of the aloe nyerrensis and the naked gaze of burled wood: it was my favorite hour.

Spring also bought along the season of the Queen's ball: Pageants, Ta'a Chume's Birthday, and the Marauder's Masquerade. Of the events, there was the much ridiculed Preliminary Judging of the Muscles. However, the slaughtering of the Loins and the Canines, marking the end of the festives, were not an entity to be gainsay nor raint upon.

The first festives I was allowed to attend was at the age of nine, per my Grandmother's request to attend_ only_ the Main Events. Ta obliged-after all, how much damage can an incoherent middle daughter do?

In previous years, I spent the New Year in Ta'a Chume'Dan with my younger sisters, watching the procession of Nobility from three stories aboard. For the rest of the year, we were split accordingly: I, along with my cousin Morobsi, with my grandmother on Gallinore; the twins with my father in Chiena, Secciah on Baldavia. I received a formal education, speaking Gallinorian at home and Hapan in public.

My mother was a soul of discretion (and ignorance) when it came to her younger children. Nobility flaunted their's~albeit most of them stayed a distance from us, out of fear and fear of disfavoring. However, there were already four of us~four brains to match. We use them to conduct our mechanism~mischeifs, some like to say.

_Majolle Blue._ The intricate detail was forever in and out of my sight. Flick, here, there! I sprinted through halls, hands outstretched to claw for Secciah's brilliant cloak. Servants parted ways pococurantely, only to be dappled by surges of bliz latrine. Kyrias' had the sense to puff up their steel parasols, followed by the distant pounding of hot coal. Aside from bounding after Secciah, I also had to keep an eye out for Elystyle, whom managed to tear out a piece of Andalyd's cloak and nothing else. (Secciah had most of her's pinned to her overdress-though the weather assented otherwise) Darting high and low, I searched through the throngs for Ta, lest she castigated us unprepared. This proved laborious, as Secciah skipped farther away from the crowds, the lights, and into the abyss.

The dark is an foe, but it can be a magnet. In previous New Years, to keep from going mad, I bribed my nurse and amused myself by climbing all over the palace, discovering everything about it. Every nook, hook, and crook was in place. Flames approached. In a heartbeat, I squashed myself against a far walk and into a low-lying passage, crouching as I made out the frown of the Patrol, as though as she heard something. she retreated and I breathed again, already making my way up another stone-lined passage.

Donna Genève was not a fool. Vigilance was the world she knew as, thus she knew the whereabouts of most. It was from her that I learned of the air shafts, used in the days to honor the old Queen. Without air, they would not be able to keep light at hand, much less breathe. the shafts were the solutions.  
>The shaft continued steeply upwards and across the networks of walls. Twice more did I stumble pass cutouts in the walls that revealed the glittering halls below. Finally, the shaft deposited me onto the roof.<p>

Above me, the night sky hang, almost dizzying. Fortunately, I have a good head for heights but it was tested that night. I cautiously scrambled across the roof and had one leg dangling down into another shaft that would lead me out to~

_The Queen...ill..._

Voices! On the roof? I glanced down the length of the sandstone buff that made up the estate to glimpse the city below. An accustomed silence reached my ears. Strange...Was Ni'Korish, then, prevented by illness from coming?

"-find it baffling. Do you notice how she does it? Every three years." A faint breeze blew in from the city, carrying with it the scent of agitation.

"And no one would have dared to start until the first step she takes to the Dining Hall."

"Exactly. Everyone knows to never address the Ta'a Chume, never!" this was followed by a belch, as if to punctuate the declaration. "What do you make of the time, Ceyx?"

"Five minutes 'til the hour."

"Soon," Ceyx whispered, almost in wonder, "Soon."

They made their way towards me, almost at level. I stood shock still, hoping to stay undetectable in the waning light. As if in answer, a hand grabbed me from behind and I plunged into the piercing light.

"Lerkie!"

"Ah, little genet. Your sister went that-a way." Larkia made a motion that signified an random direction. Indeed, Secciah was lost.

I stared at her accusingly, "You followed me."

Larkia raised her eyebrows, "And should that surprise you?"

There were a few in nobility that had broke the boundaries to privately acknowledge me~Larkia Allore being one of them. An Gallniorian on Hapes, Larkia, known as Lerkie, divided her time between her mother's estate in Colonn and the _Triphyl Vasileios_ in Ta'a Chume'Dan.

"Suprise me? Do you recall the time when you used to attack Morobsi and me whenever you went to the palazzo? That was starting to get a bit old."

"So I did suprise you," Larkia concluded in triumph "Otherwise, you wouldn't have acted so defensive."

I sighed.

Beyond, I could see the flames approach from what was unmistakably the Ta'a Chume's chambers. "Ni'Korish," I whispered hastily.

Larkia turned "The Queen Mother is coming?"

I crumpled to the ground. The shafts that led down ended at the second level, where a set of the Chume'doros were located. Even if I did manage to avoid them, there would be the task of averting a confrontation down the stairs.

I sat mulling over this when a voice from below said; "Finally, I've been looking all over for you!"

I stood shock still as an hidden part of the floor sprung up. A familiar face peered at us.

"Secciah," I exclaimed "How...?"

The trapdoor. Secciah. A plan came to mind, and when it did, I wondered why I had not thought of it sooner. It was that obvious.

"Gotcha!" I feigned a grab for Secciah, who instantly darted out of the way. I dashed after her, narrowly averting an low-rising wall. Larkia was not as fortunate. I stopped only to clasp a hand over her mouth, a tear slowly coursing way down her cheek.

The tunnel could only and begin and end on the main level. After all, I concluded, was there any other link to explain how Secciah fumbled her way in the dark? I bristled for one of the many twist and turns in the passage. Furthermore, I though of the infinite possibilities, she must've saw Ni'Korish's party and decided to return to her nurse, along with Donna Genève in the...

The pieces came together

...but not before warning us...

A dull bang sounded, followed by a hiss. Above, a square of light appeared where Secciah had disappeared. I leaped out, reaching back to pull Larkia to her feet, and replaced the trapdoor, which blended so perfectly with the floor that it was almost invisible. Larkia made a move to go on, but I lingered.

We were in the corner, it seemed, lighted in such a way that the hall before us was bright as daylight, in contrast to the passage's dimness. Anyone who had seen her enter it would dismiss it as mere illusion.

My meditation on the discovery of the hidden corner were interrupted by Lerkie, who grabbed me roughly by the arm, signaling that there was little time left before risking discover. I scrambled to my feet and we quickly covered the last stretch of pathway separating us from the dining hall. Quietly, I slipped into the hall through a little used door, regaining my place beside Genève, a disconcerted look on her face. Lerkie, her mother's.

"Chume 'ta!" My Donna emitted a squeak, in contrast to the guest's constant babble, both seated and the ones who've yet to be-there was never enough chairs. I watched in morbid fascination as the creases on Genève's face underwent an metamorphosis: from anxious to rage and irritation. She opened her mouth, but before she could utter one word, the doors slammed shut; all except one: the chief one. In that silence, the women inspected their hairdos in the mirrors, the gentleman and adolescents their technology. Trumpets sounded, followed by echoes and echoes of the original, and finally, with the self-satisfied indolence of a peacock making the rounds, and flanked by imposing Chume'doros, Ni'Korish made her way across rows and rows of scheming ravens. Her face was expressionless~the cold brilliance of ice.

As she passed me, her face pursed into a small frown. I gulped, and felt her sleeve brush roughly against my shoulder. She blinked slowly at Naucrate, therefore reaching the dais. _The Eldest Daughter._ Retracing the path that her mother had undertook, Ni'Korish's second daughter raised her head towards our table, where our gazes met. It stuck.

~*( )*~*( )*~*( )*~

Many years later Ta'a Chume Ad'Ahy visits the moment in her dreams. The sister's locked gazes, their eyes studying each other at all that long moment, amber against black, before Ni'Korish's signal for the billion lights to drop, they understood:  
><em>My enemy is not my friend.<em>

~*( )*~*( )*~*( )*~

Orchards are the world as our mind like ot be-an everlasting and ideal region of the mind. Sad that in this heaven, a flood will breech and destroy.

From an bird eye's view, dozens of children, including Larkia and I, perched on the branches of this eternal haven. In other words, it provided a sort of shield.

Rain had pounded the city that forthnight, trailing behind it a stream of humidity. A flock of_ kyrias_ surrounded the dais, in direct of the sun. Soon, sweat beads formed and imprinted themselves into the thick materials of their gowns. Silk might've been more agreeable, I noted, or naked~yes, naked in front of all the aristocracy of Hapes, not to mention Ni'Korish.

Higher up, in the shady leaves of an olive tree, I did not fare better. For one, my scalp burned from an recent combing (or should I say yanking) from Donna Genève. No doubt she was still seething from the past day's events. Another involved a near-impossible attempt to maneuver a hair fork~usually my Donna's duty~only to thwack Secciah in the face with one of the prongs, with,_ thankfully _meant that she was not present at the moment. I smiled narrowly. At least I had only the twins to deal with.

"Here she comes!"

Heads snapped up, some so sharply that the crackling of twigs and muscles could be heard. Trumpets announced Ni'Korish's arrival, and, as tradition required, a better part of an hour devoted to a speech on the history of the festives. Adding to the hour of wait, this was exactly as tedious as it sounds. I paid very little attention to it.

When I looked up, the administrator was wrapping up the end of her speech, and Ni'Korish had emerged. The_ kyrias_ stood openmouthed. Obviously, they too, had drifted off.

"People of Hapes," Ni'Korish began "Today..."

The rest of the speech was drowned out by the rumbling of crates and the cheers for the long awaited show. Several heads blocked my view. With difficulty, I managed to pier them apart.

Four mastiffs were being hoisted aloft on ropes. They were being hanged! They danced and jerked on the ropes, whined and then choked, withering as they frantically clawed at the rope with their helpless paws. Soon they were dangling limply, their tongues protruding. There was a morbid silence.

Fireworks torched the sky, the crowds exploded. As the bodies of the animals were being dragged away, a small smiled touched Ni'Korish's pale lips. It was as if she enjoyed it all.

~*( )*~*( )*~

_Chume 'ta:_ Princess  
><em>kyria:<em> Noblewomen  
><em>Triphyl Vasileios:<em> Vasileios School  
><em>Ta:<em> Mother  
>Chiena and Colonn: Two counties on Gallinore<p>

Andalyd and Elystyle: the Chume 'ta's younger sisters~'the twins'.


End file.
